Riverside Hotel Saigon

By Lê Minh Khôi 

1. Introduction

Imagine yourself walking by the Saigon River’s Bank on busy Tôn Đức Thắng street.

Do you feel relaxed? Spacious? Or is it too noisy? Overloaded with traffic?

Such contradictions are the present state of Tôn Đức Thắng Street. The road is full of vehicles, with motorbikes engines roaming and cars honking. One may even find it absurd to live at such a loud and crowdy place. Yet gazing along Saigon River’s bank, there are people who like to do some jogging, some go fishing, or take photographs at the scenic spot along the waterfront.

Placed in a prominent position, right in front of Bach Dang Wharf, tourists seek the Riverside Hotel on Ton Duc Thang as a place to rest and see. However, in front of the busy Ton Duc Thang Street, how does the Hotel tell and give its guests what it promises?

2. About the Hotel

The Riverside Hotel is a 3-star rated hotel. Having been an office building before, in 1990, the building was then refurbished to become a hotel. Currently, the Hotel offers its customers with 51 rooms a wide variety of room standards: Senior Deluxe, Junior Suite, and Riverside Suite. The building stands eye-catching with its yellow-tinted white paintings compared to the other modern glass and steel buildings along the road, and communicates thus with the nearby Hotel Majestic.

On its official website, the Riverside Hotel proclaims itself as “a classic French styled construction by Saigon River, coats itself with the look of luxury and warmth.” Indeed, its architecture gracefully announces the statement with decorative sculptures, and classicizing columns, all of which were designed to embrace symmetry. The windows are wooden-framed. The entrance is small, there is only a shaft with its name “Riverside Hotel” to alert the guest that this is where you enter. Two plant pots are placed by each side, according to Vietnamese tradition. Already from outside, you get the impression of a relaxing, luxurious, and secluded building.

​​3. Riverside Hotel's History

The Riverside Hotel’s history is one that is fascinating to uncover. Back then, the building was a French colonial style office building for CARIC, an important French ship repairing company built in the year 1887. At that time, Saigon River port was ever busy and imported many industries from rice, beer and other drinks, shipyards, brick yards, tobacco, manufacturing goods etc – making the riverbank also a prime location for trading and financial transactions and all ship affairs.

However, in 1990, Hoa Binh Group refurbished the building from two floors to become a hotel by erecting six floors in total on top of the basement floor. Then in 1998, the hotel’s ownership was transferred, and from then on, it was operated by Saigon Bank for Industry and Trade. However, it is unclear in the period between 1990 to 1998, whether a private company or the Vietnamese Government had commissioned Hoa Binh group to refurbish the building.

4. The Hotel’s Location

The Hotel is situated in Ton Duc Thang Street, occupying three building blocks at the address 18-19-20, running along the river. The Street is one the most important roads in District 1. It connects with other vital roads of the District; Nguyen Hue, Hai Ba Trung, Dong Khoi. Hence from Ton Duc Thang, one can easily access famous and symbolic attractions such as Ho Chi Minh City Hall, Saigon Opera House, or the Independence Palace. 

In the past, the location used to be a crowded trading spot with high river traffic. Many ships would stop by in preparation for the next sailing, or to transport various kinds of goods, materials, and people as well. Hence, it is more suitable to have office buildings by the location to manage imported goods and tax work. 

Nowadays, there have been larger industrial ports around Saigon, while riverside spots on Saigon River close to the historical center are now mostly reserved for tourist ships. Furthermore, as Ton Duc Thang Street expands its traffic flow, and with the emergence of nearby Me Ling Square, the Hotel’s location is more than ever suitable for guests to stay by and commute throughout the city concievently while also be able to enjoy the River view. 

Moreover, just recently, Thu Thiem 2, a bridge between Saigon downtown (District 1) to Thu Thiem City, which was designated as the new financial and innovative hub of the city, opened to traffic. This construction will greatly increase the traffic flow of Ton Duc Thang as it becomes the entrance point of the Thu Thiem 2 Bridge from District 1, making the road even more vital to the flow of transportation. Ton Duc Thang Street also holds ambitious promises in the future, as The People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City recently announced their proposal to turn the street into a walking area similar to Nguyen Hue Street, and the traffic to go underground instead.

5. The Interior:

1. Main Hall

Walking through the entrance, you are greeted by a spacious center space, surrounded by Corinthian columns. Furthermore, there are photographic portraits of Saigon scenes from the 1945 to 1975s. These images usually feature famous and important places, such as the Ho Chi Minh City Hall , Cho Lon Market, Saigon River, emphasizing the location's history and long standing tradition.

2. Rooms

On Riverside’s official webpage, they describe their rooms as ones that “appointed with elegant and precious furnishings ”. Indeed, chairs, tables, drawers, and wardrobes are all wooden, decorated with engraved abstract natural-inspired details. The floor is shiny-coated, combined with waterproof wooden pieces. The curtains are thick, white with a slight yellow tone. Alongside, rooms are equipped with only essential modern technology, no other than a television, a refrigerator, a clothes iron, a telephone, and an air conditioner. However, customers are instilled with an impression that they must have been used for ages - obviously, the colonial past is used as a frame to attract guests who visit Ho Chi Minh City for tourism. Hence, many have left reviews that the hotel is outdated.

3. Surroundings

Reading the Hotel’s reviews left by visitors, some are noise complaints, while others embraces the beauty of the scene that the Riverside rooms offer. So I did seek to see the scene for myself. From the third floor and above, not much noise from the street you can hear from here. The air was fresh, unlike the dusty atmosphere on the ground level, here the wind from the river had carried them away.

6. The Exterior: The facade and its relief sculptures

1. The Pediment

The Pediment (fig. 1) is adorned with the relief sculpture, thus referring to ancient Greek and Roman temples. We see two winged-women who are both holding a laurel wreath (fig. 2). In the Greek and Roman mythology, these two winged-woman are called Nike (Greek) or Victoria (Latin), the personification and goddess of Victory. Nike could also serve as an attribute of both Athena, the goddess of knowledge, and Zeus, the principal god, and was depicted in art as a little figure carried in the hand of those gods. In Roman times, Victoria was omnipresent, e.g. on public monuments, on coins, on sarcophagi or in the paintings and sculpture of private houses, and continued to be used as a symbol for victory also in the 19th century. 

2. The classicizing columns

The composite column (fig. 3) is a Roman-designed column style that combines aspects of Ionic and Corinthian columns from the ancient Greek era. The capitals of composite columns are ornately ornamented (tops). The floral adornment of the Composite capital is styled after the acanthus leaf, as is typical of Corinthian capitals. The leaf ornamentation components of the Corinthian style are combined with the Ionic style's scroll motifs (volute). With this classizising elements, the facade clearly relates to Roman antiquity. Furthermore, the symmetric look with pediment and windows in different shapes refers to architecture of the Renaissance and Classicism, thus mixing elements somehow related with antiquity to create a luxurious impression. The facade, however, was probably not part of the original building from the 19th century, but added later when it was turned into a hotel.

3. The Relief Sculptures

The facade shows several panels with reliefs sculptures, showing different scenes with female figures and children, which create idyllic and romantic riverside scenes, corresponding to the building's location (and name).

Sculptures of the left wing:

Panel 1: A naked, kneeling woman is nursing a child (fig. 4). All around her, plants symbolize fertility. The reed locates the scene at a river. To some degree, the woman reminds of the Crouching Venus, a well-known sculpture or Graeco-Roman art.

Panel 2: Under a tree, a young man is playing the double flute (Greek: auloi) (fig. 5). Two his left, a child is dancing, his cloth is floating in the wind. This kind of scenes derive from antiquity and usually show the entourage of the god Dionysus/Bacchus, expressing the joy of life.

These two square panels frame a long relief panel with several figures (see below fig. 10).

Sculptures of the right wing:

Panel 3: On the left, a young woman pours a liquid from a jug, to her right a child is holding a similar vessel. Again, tree branches and reed - evoking a riverside scene - frame the figures. Pouring liquids from jugs is a well-known scene from ancient art, meaning a libation to the gods. However, in this idyllic riverside context, the original meaning seems to be reframed to the topic of motherhood/family life and fertility.

Panel 4: A half-nude figure holds a bow in its right hand, and a child tries to grab the weapon. In the background on the left, a dear is visible, obviously killed by two arrows. Different to the panels discussed above, the main topic here is hunting. Although the half-nude figure seems to have short hair, it might be a young woman, since all other panels show female figures. In this case, it must be the hunting goddess Artemis/Diana. Again, an atmosphere of Graeco-Roman myth in a fertile riverside setting is being evoked here.

Also between these two sqare panels there is a long relief panel with several figures (see below fig. 9).

In the very center of the building, three figures in flat relief are visible between columns (fig. 8). On the left, a young man in Greek dress holds a lamp (?) in his left hand and walks to the right. He is mirrored by a young woman on the right, facing him. She lifts her long, Greek dress (peplos) with the left hand, while the raised right hand holds a flower. The dress does not cover her left breast, referring to Marianne, the personification of liberty during the French revolution. 

The meaning of the 19th century ship between the two youths is somehow blurred. Very likely, it represents the economic prosperity of the ship company which was the original owner of the building. The date below the ship, 1864, may refer to an event related to the CARIC company, however, we could not verify the exact meaning.

The two long relief panels are structured in a very similar way, and they both show an idyllic riverside landscape with a lying woman in the middle and several children. The panel on the building's right wing (fig. 9) seems to thematize fertility and nourishment. The children are dancing and eating, and the woman holds up a plant with her right hand. Its counterpart (fig. 10) focusses on the friendship of the figures, and especially on a love relationship between boys and girls (two children or youths are kissing each other in the background). 

Again, the woman's dress alludes to Marianne: The long and square panels mix this French symbol with the atmosphere of Greek myth and the idyllic setting of a riverside landscape, thus emphazising the real context of the building at the Saigon river. Just like the placement of the reliefs on the facade, the economic success of ship trade takes the central role and guarantees prosperity, nourishment, fertility and a positive environment.

7. Is the Riverside Hotel a time machine?! 

In many ways, the Riverside Hotel building was never intended to be a hotel in the beginning, its target was not customers that seek modern facilities or present-day entertainments, but rather guests who like to revisit the past experiences. One may notice that the nearby Majestic Hotel also seems to have the same intention, but unlike the Riverside Hotel, Majestic Hotel was built to be a Hotel in the beginning of its construction.

Thus, in today’s urban context, one may feel that the Riverside Hotel building is alienated by its own imagery. The street and its pedestrian pavement is now full of people and traffic vehicles, the sense of remoteness and privacy has become hardly instilled in many impressions living by the river.But tracing back to the past, when the building was erected, its location was also a crowded trading spot with regular imported goods. Therefore, the animation of nature by the river’s bank with trees and bushes growing, although seeming artificial, is an attempt to reframe the Riverside Hotel’s impression towards its customers .

Despite Riverside Hotel’s grandeur presence on Tôn Đức Thắng street, nearby modern hotels starts to compete. For example in the case of the new Renaissance Riverside Hotel, it was built in modern style, promising a more secluded experience with taller architecture, better sound-proof materials, and modern in-room equipment. Hence, this creates a contrast between values of modernity and classic. One, approaching from the riverbank, may take an interest in observing this contrast, for it reminds of Saigon’s past under French colonialism. Riverside Hotel and Majestic Hotel, therefore, stand uniquely for some vintage-style cultural and historical values, promising its audience experience and unique participation of the Saigon’s past, even nowadays.

Reference:

1. Riverside Hotel Offical Webpage, About Us. Last accessed 29 May, 2022.

2. Hoa Binh Group Offical Webpage, History. Last accessed 28 May, 2022. 

3. Saigon Bank Offical Webpage, Profile. Last accessed 29 May, 2022. 

4. Harms, Erik. "Thủ Thiêm Futures Past: A Short History of Seeing without Seeing." In Luxury and Rubble, 117-153. 2016.

5. http://saigon-vietnam.fr/port-saigon_en.php , Last accessed on 29 May 2022

6. Dân Việt, Ảnh màu về bến Bạch Đằng ở Sài Gòn trước 1975, Last accessed on 1 Jun 2022

7. Vietcetera, In photos: HCMC's Thu Thiem 2 Opens to Traffic, Last accesed on 1 Jun 2022

8. Saigoneer, New Proposal Turns Ton Duc Thang Into Walking Plazas, Shoos Traffic Underground, Last accesed on 1 Jun 2022